April Farming and Gardening Notes

--April brings ticks to your livestock (and you!). The good news is that when you see your first tick, that means the last frost is less than a month away. The bad news is that after frost come weevils in the alfalfa, then cutworms and sod webworms in the corn. There’s more: army worms, slugs, corn borers, flea beetles and leaf hoppers. Not to mention all those flies around the livestock! And all that before the 1st of June in much of the United States of America.
--It may not be too late in your area to find commercially-raised predators for flies and other insects. Call your extension office to see if they know of any “natural” type controls available for your pests.
--If you don’t have a perennial vegetable garden, now is the time to put one in. The most basic perennial plantings are asparagus and rhubarb. With careful bed preparation for each of them, you can be self-sufficient in at least two items for the rest of your life. A few other simple items to grow: comfrey and horse radish.
--So how about a perennial fruit garden too? An apple tree - even a dwarf - might be the easiest way to start. Then don’t forget the raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. Get them all in as early as you can so they will be well established by the end of the season and will start producing as the millennium turns!
--The older you get (they say), the more important color becomes in your life. If you are one of those people who are getting a little older all the time, you may find that perennial flowers are even more necessary than vegetables and fruits! If you don’t happen to have fields of tulips and daffodils, this is the time to go around looking at other people’s gardens. Better yet, schedule a trip to a nearby nursery or conservatory to see the show.
--This is the time for planting the field corn, oats, and barley throughout the central states. Topdress winter wheat and band seed alfalfa. Frost seed the pastures along the Canadian border, seed tobacco in Border States.
--And if you are running a seasonal dairy operation to supplement your shepherding activities, now is the time to let your cattle freshen as they feed on the lush pasture. In seasonal operations, the cows dry off in the non-pasture months of the Winter.
--How about your boar? Is he getting enough vitamin E and selenium? If not, he may not be the breeder that you need throughout the coming months.
--You will be drenching the sheep before they go out to pasture; don’t forget to worm the cows, heifers, and bulls. And be sure to vaccinate them too as you move into the spring breeding season.
--Since the Southwest has one of the highest incidence of plants that are poisonous to sheep, now may be a perfect time to go looking for the bad stuff. Since flowering plants are easiest to identify when they are in flower, don’t wait until the weather warms up and the blossoms fade. Of course that’s true in other parts of the nation too!
--The canopy of leaves closes throughout the period, with maples and box elders coming early, sycamores and oaks at the beginning of summer. Sometimes the sun gets ahead of the size of your leaves, however, bringing sunburn or overheating to livestock ordinarily safe in the shade during the summer. Along the Gulf coast, the trees already offer full protection; in the green pastures of the Border States and along the Canadian border, sheep may still get more sunshine than you bargain for.
--If you have an extra kid this Spring, you might consider giving it away to a child who would enjoy taking care of it. Lou Penning, who lives on a small ranch in Montana, has done that with several of her kids, and finds that’s a good way to make people happy.
--It’s weaning time for February kids. Slowly replace their milk with grain, free choice hay and water. Reduce high energy winter feeds to the rest of your herd as the weather warms up.
--Stuart Young, from Young’s Jersey Dairy in southwestern Ohio, always worms his Nubians in March or April, and then again in the fall. Stuart’s several dozen goats are a sideline to the family’s Jersey dairy operation. But his animals don’t give milk; they take money from the visitors who buy feed from nearby vending machines!
--Take fecal samples after kidding, and before the spring gets too far along; do annual vaccinations and blood work too. Stuart Young clips his herd twice a year; you can do that too. Why not castrate, tattoo, dehorn the kids, and check their hooves while you’re at it. And it’s an especially good idea to castrate and dehorn relatively early in the season, before fly and screwworm time.
--You’re never too old for goats. Well, that’s what you might think talking to Lou Penning. She’s seventy years old, and bought her land and goats because “all I could do was crochet” in the city. She did find sheep to be a bit more trouble than goats, however, “with all those birthing problems.” So she butchered her sheep and kept the goats! Living alone on her thirty acres, with the nearest neighbor over a mile away, she finds her goats to be “real docile” and “good company.”
--Plant the forage garden now: fast growing leafy vegetables are favorites. After that, walk your fence line to make sure it’s ready for summer.
--Get the collars around new kids you intend to show, and work with your animals whenever you can. --Watch for mold in feed supplies as the weather turns warmer and more humid.
--Mowing is underway in the South, and getting ready to start in the central states; be careful to keep new cuttings away from the animals. In Montana, Lou Penning says that pastures are just starting to grow now – so she and her neighbors have another month before the mowing starts.
--If your buck is becoming unruly with the spring weather, it’s probably time to have a conversation with him, “It keeps him from getting mean when you talk to him,” says Lou Penning. “And my billy never gets mean even when he’s chasen’ the girls.”